Need of the Hour: Career Guidance & Career Planning in India

Indian Education has many issues to deal with. Since the year 1835 the British started tinkering with the India’s traditional education system of ‘Guru shyshya’ which was value based and focussed on outcome and application of learning.

The new age education came into being with schools and colleges being set up across India.

In 1948 when the Radhakrishnan Commission was set up with an intention of designing a new National University Education Policy of free India, the commission stressed on the outcome of education into social, economic and cultural goals of the nation.

Dr S Radhakrishnan in his words said:

“The most important and urgent reform needed in education is to transform it, to endeavor to relate it to the life, needs and aspirations of the people and thereby make it the powerful instrument of social, economic and cultural transformation necessary for the realization of the national goals. For this purpose, education should be developed so as to increase productivity, achieve social and national integration, accelerate the process of modernization and cultivate social, moral and spiritual values.” ⁵

Since 1956 Commissions and committees were set up to deal with non-implementation of earlier recommendations and identifying gaps in the Education system.

On the ground, apart from introducing little new regulatory compliance there were no major changes that could be effected towards building outcome of education to the social, economic and cultural goals of the country.

In reality the focus of higher education always has been away from the outcome and application to just input based education. Outcome here means the education resulting in either economic growth or increased capability of the learner.

Unfortunately today education has minimal relevance to occupation, passion, interest of the individual learner. The age old beliefs have created havoc in making a choice of education. The aspirational needs, abilities and interest of the individual have been ignored. This has led to non-compatibility, career failures, drop outs and unemployables.

Today the youth do not value higher education. They acquire degrees with no connection to their occupations they would like to pursue. This is visible with higher un-employability and unemployment in the country. Hence, the gross enrolment ratios and dropout rates are far from desired.

The government is doing all it can to improve access of education. It’s a known fact that 73% of the population lives in rural India, however 90% of the educational institutes are in urban India ⁶. I believe that it’s a superficial measure of increasing enrolments.

 

Towards Valuing Higher Education

The youth of India will value education only when they see benefits that result in their social, economic and personal growth. There needs to be sustained effort on helping the youth realize their potential and guide them into the right education which will lead them into a career that satisfying yet economically fulfilling.

Today 98% of young boys and 96% of young girls are confused while making a career decision⁷. The confusion is due to the lack of information and skill for making career decisions. This confusion drives them into making unfocussed investments of time, effort and money into education that may or may not deliver returns.

A scientific career guidance process with a reliable information base on education and career would transform the current scenario.

Guiding the student into taking up education that would lead to a career that’s compatible to his or her personal abilities, passion, interests, values and personality, would never let the interest levels in education diminish. Moreover, research tells us that students who are able to understand and internalize the connections between school and work will be more actively engaged in their academic tasks and will be more likely to succeed in high school ⁸

 

^{Excerpts from the paper ‘Relooking at the Indian Education System” Published by Anand Desai, Founder Dheya (www.dheya.com ), A complete Career Guidance and Planning Company.}

Technorati Tags: Career Guidance,Career Development,Career Planning. Indian Education System.

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DHEYA the 4th Idiot – 3 Idiots evolved it!!

 

Contributed by our Jharkhand Associate : Rajeev Ranjan (rajeev.ranjan@dheya.com). Rajeev Puts Dheya as the 4th Idiot trying to help students turn successful…read on…

 


 
People always say movies are always unrealistic and it’s a drama but the Irony is they always tend to follow what movies show cast. Following the latest hairstyles, the costumes, even the look alike it’s all about what people go on crazy to adopt. The funniest part is they miss or ignore the inspiration and teaching which movies try to showcase. Whether it be Lakshya or 3 Idiots they make lots of sense for both the old gen and the young blood.

What Aamir khan says in 3 idiots “ Don’t run after scoring marks or getting a degree or do things for sake of doing or being successful, just believe in excellence in whatever you do and then Success will itself run for you” . Doesn’t he justify his words by being an excellent, top league actor for whom success is immaterial as it follows him automatically because of his excellence? The essence of his real flick is to follow the Career path which makes you feel happy and where your interest lies. Just don’t go on follow the conventional Careers what your parents decide right at the time you are born and they dream about you, your relatives and friends suggest or what the latest trend is. Believe me the reason is you can excel in the career path you choose for yourself not your parents. The root cause of all the failures or drop outs in education or jobs is the selection of wrong Career path. And you won’t believe it is the only reason which is making the so called workforce “Unemployable”.

It is there where the 4th Idiot “Dheya.com” comes into picture. Why the term 4th Idiot you all will be thinking so? The reason is 3 Idiots revolve around making the right Career choice which automatically evolves the 4th Idiot “Dheya.com” as it is the only Organization operating with the mission of making the young generation choose the right and sensible career choice to improve employability and their productivity. It’s high time that they must go and follow Mr. Madhavan(the 2nd Idiot) and just out spoke about the career they feel is appropriate for them. But it’s a big truth that it is quite difficult to decide the right Career choice both for the child and parents and it is where “Dheya.com” acts as a facilitator to suggest you the right Career path on scientifically proven and technical grounds. They don’t only suggest that but also plan and draw the path to achieve it. If you don’t believe it I am sure a try with them will make you change your preconceived notion. The 4th Idiot is the only one who does it Idiotically(as Aamir khan does) but really!



Posted by Rajeev Ranjan Dated- 26th December 2009

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Dheya In News: Guiding Light

The Telegraph – Career Graph – Hemachaya De – 3rd Dec 09

Pramit Mukherjee loved physics and wanted to become an astrophysicist. That was until he took an online career assessment test.

Of course, he still loves the subject, but this 15-year-old student of South Point High School in Calcutta now knows that he will do best as an entrepreneur.

Mukherjee was chivvied into taking the test by his parents who felt that his academic performance was not satisfactory.

They realised he needed to be clear about whether he had an aptitude for basic sciences.

Not surprisingly, the test brought about a sea change in the boy's manner of thinking. He learnt that he needed to assess his strengths and weaknesses before setting his career goals. "The programme helped me realise that I can think independently and that I should concentrate on becoming an entrepreneur," says Mukherjee. "I may not take science in Plus Two as planned earlier."

Abishek Datta, a Class XII student of another city school, is also a lot more confident after taking the test. "I am studying commerce. But I was never quite sure that I would do well in finance," he says. His online assessment test results, coupled with one-on-one career counselling, have shown that he would be much better off if he took up BBA (bachelor of business administration) after school and followed it up with an MBA.

Mukherjee and Datta are not alone. A whopping 98 per cent of boys and 96 per cent of girls in India are estimated to experience difficulty in making career decisions at the school and college levels.



Only 4 per cent of students receives some sort of expert guidance in this regard. Sometimes career choices are based simply on market demands without taking into consideration whether or not one's skills and personality suit the profession one is opting for. This is where career assessment programmes like Aavishkar hope to make a difference.

The first-of-its-kind online career assessment programme is helping hundreds of students choose the best suited career. The programme has been launched by Pune-based career guidance portal dheya.com in association with the Bengali daily Ananda Bazar Patrika.

Targeted at students aged between 13 and 26 years, Aavishkar has been designed by career experts and social scientists on the basis of psychometrics, mind exercises, simulations and questions to enable students realise their potential. "I have travelled across the world. In most developed countries, much emphasis is laid on career guidance for school students. In India, however, it's a neglected area. This is one of the reasons a large number of students do not opt for higher education," says Anand Desai, director of dheya.com. "In our country, only 12 out of 100 eligible heads enroll in colleges. According to the government, this needs to be raised to at least 60 to make the nation more productive.

"

Career experts also feel that such as- sessments should be made a mandatory part of the school curriculum. "Parents should be involved in these events because most often they are the ones who cause most often they are the ones who finance the children's education," says Salony Priya, a counselling psychologist who is part of the counselling teams in schools such as the Heritage School and DPS, Megacity.

Priya suggests that schools set up permanent notice boards on the premises disseminating career information for students. "I deal with hundreds of cases where students are depressed because they have taken up subject combinations for which they have no aptitude.

And also because parents exert pressure on them to follow conventional career paths such as medicine and engineering," she says.

However, academicians would like to put in a word of caution; they warn against bulldozing students into choosing a particular career path. "Perspectives change with age. And students should give themselves room to accommodate those changes. So although career assessment tests are welcome at an early stage, they should be done in a responsible manner.

We shouldn't straitjacket students into a particular mode of thinking," says Devi Kar, principal of Modern High School who is also a member of a central panel on school reforms.

So if you need some advice on which path to follow after school or college, you know which way to go.

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75% Indian engineering students unemployable: Report

Discussing a report by software industry group Nasscom which says that 75 percent engineering students in India are unemployable, education experts here on Saturday said that the Indian higher education system must give skill building and practical training equal importance as academics to give them an edge.

In their latest report released in the last week of October 2009, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said that Indian IT firms reject 90 percent of college graduates and 75 percent of engineers who apply for jobs because they are not good enough to be trained.

We have been talking about unemployability and education. the mismatch between the academic processes and the its true application. Today we are teaching students in subjects that will not be required in future. Today with a gross enrollment ratio of Higher Education being 12. ie .. out of 100 eligible people (18 yrs to 24 yrs) only 12 take up college education, other 88% don't. among this 12% the employability ratio is 10% to 25%. Its sad and is a reflection of the effectiveness of the Indian Education System.

Its not important just keep approving central universities and colleges or just increasing the education infrastructure, its highly important to work on the effectiveness of the outcome of education towards economic and social goals of the country.

I guess we as a nation will never learn. We will keep doing superficial stuff and actions just to show that we are doing something. The quality of education need to improve. Youth need to appreciate the value of education. Majority of the youth do not see value in education. So do not opt for higher education. The condition is even worst when we see the figures relating to female enrollments in higher education.

Then whats the solution. Here is some action points suggested by Dheya to the Government of India:

1. A substantial effort needs to go into revamping the curriculum from Grade VIII onwards to link the curriculum and the occupations and jobs of the future.
2. Help the students to understand themselves and plan their careers for a horizon of 10 years
3. Equip the students with skills that would make them focussed and employable starting from the age of 13.

Hope they listen...

Anand Desai

Founder - Dheya

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Placement & Education: Wake up Call …

“The purpose of a B-school is to impart learning and not just to place a student. But come placement season and students’ attention is taken away from learning,”

........K Mamkoottam, new dean of Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi University.

This is true and valid for each institute may it be the Engineering college or a management institute. This is a catch 22 situation for all. On one side their admissions depend on the placement record and placement record depends on the quality of education and students. Many institutes are doing many things to build the placement record leaving the academic side of education aside.

I have seen institutes using their entire female student force to make calls to various corporate houses just to invite them for placements and the male student force to drop placement brochures. I remember I received 30 or more calls from the same institute and 12 brochures. The entire last six months starting from the mid of the 3rd sem is focussed on placement. This is a story of a B-/ C grade institute which takes more than 1000 students in different institutes (under the same group). Students are promised a placement with god knows what figures of past placements. Ultimately the placement record is dismal. The average salary of whatever mentioned at the time of placement is nowhere there and the numbers are bad. I guess this the same story across.

I sympathise with Mr. Mamkoottam, but i sympathise more with the students who keep a blind faith on the HUGE color adverts of the institutes for admissions.

Unfortunately our education systems hasn't got it yet. There seems to be no or limited linkage of academics to the job/occupation and a career. Outcome of education is just shelved under the carpet and shown as degrees earned and not employment. Very few institutes do talk occupations, careers, employment, life long learning in real sense. Its not understood by student what waiting for them at the end of their education. Educational institute have become a degree churning factories. By the way they also agree.

Why are we unable to do anything. Today's news was a sad one. Over 100 students of the Air Hostess Academy (AHA) gathered in front of the institute office on JM road, Pune on Monday protesting against the management for not providing them employment and certificates on completion of the course. Large number of police guarded the premises of the academy to avoid any untoward incident. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) also came to the academy and demanded action against the management. Parents of students, also present on the spot, demanded action.

I guess this shouldn't happen to the so called management institutes/engineering colleges who charge in lakhs luring students on their displayed placement percentage. We calculated the investment of a student for MBA, its turns out to be anywhere between 10 lakhs to 16 lakhs. I am sure one day parents are going to questions, if not parents the students would certainly question. Also this will take a POLITICAL turn and will get into a complicated mess if don't tackle it NOW. Last time MNS took a huge political mileage in Pune by saying that there's no marathi manoos in the MBA institutes.. now it will be for no placements.

Sometime back we wrote about how admissions are done in Pune, people are waiting in queues to get their kids admitted with even paying below the table money. Institutes boast of people waiting in queue for admissions, but this may not be for long. Thanks to my favourite Mr.Kapil Sibal, theres going to be a flurry of institutes and central universities lined up to increase access for education all over India. Tomorrow if its IIT Ranchi Vs Sinhagad engineering college, it will obviously be the choice of IIT Ranchi than any xyz college in Pune.

Wake up institutes.Take these actions before its too late. Build Career Development Programs: Its important to build career planning and development programs as a part of curriculum. Build employability capabilities among students: Help students build employability capabilities so that job search and employment looks easy. Link Education to Outcome: Its important for the institute to help the students internalise their academic efforts to what career they plan to pursue.

LiveJournal Tags: Dheya,Employability,Placement,Management Institutes,Protests,FMS,Engineering Colleges

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2,600 Seats Lying Vacant In Orissa’s Pvt Engg Colleges

Financial Express – 4th August 09.

This makes me wonder, if we really need a JEE. I guess JEE is creating a great barrier for aspirants. I guess its a competitive exam to define grading of students abilities. However there has been no proven correlation to the students career success and such grading. The solution to this is each institute conducting their own short entrance approval test using more psychometric testing tools. At the same time working on their own branding with a positive display of academic and placement successes.

Bhubaneswar: : Chaos and uncertainty have proved disastrous for the promoters of private engineering colleges in Orissa. With the tussle going on between the newly formed Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) and Orissa Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) during admission time over seat quotas and fee fixation, students and their parents have become more cautious about admissions t his year.

As many as 2,600 seats in private engineering colleges are lying vacant as students who qualified in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) refused to take admission. While about 21,000 students were called for counselling, only 6,176 students turned up. Besides this, 1,500 students have taken admission under the management quota.

With the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) increasing 1,500 seats in engineering colleges this year, the number of seats in 37 engineering colleges in the state has gone up to 10,500.

The tussle between BUPT and OPECA started when the latter resolved to conduct separate entrance tests for admission into management seats. However, BPUT insisted that no merit list, except JEE, would be entertained for admission into the colleges.

This led to confusion and thus marred the admission prospects of these private engineering colleges. Moreover, the fee hike this year in private colleges has also made students rethink about taking admission. “The students are shying away from engineering courses because there are not enough job opportunities and the overall expenses have gone up” admits state industries minister, KV Singhdeo, who is also the chairman of the JEE Board.

He, however, said that seats lying vacant was not a new trend in the state. About 2,000 seats were vacant in engineering colleges last year.

This year, the worst hit are colleges imparting Master in Computer Application (MCA) courses. The uncertainty in information technology job market has reflected the mood in during the admission season. Only 650 of the 2,622 seats in the engineering and MCA colleges in the state were filled up this year.

Meanwhile, looking at the seat vacancy position, OPECA has urged the state government to allow it to admit students outside the JEE list.

The government and BPUT should relax the JEE guidelines to take more and more students in the professional courses, says OPECA president Kaminikanta Patnaik. “If the admission norms can be relaxed for MCA, why can’t the same be done for all other engineering subjects”, he adds.

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Set the campus free

by Ila Patnaik

Kapil Sibal, the new minister for human resource development, has his first task cut out for him. He acquires a portfolio so ill-served by his predecessors and one that has such a critical bearing on India realising its social and political aspirations that he must hit the ground running.


The HRD minister needs to bring about a new policy framework for higher education in India. Thousands of young Indians, unable to find a decent university education in India, are flocking to universities abroad. Of the multitude of students coming out of schools, a substantial fraction want a university education. The license raj in university education has stalled the growth in university seats of even a minimum acceptable quality. The affluent struggle to find the money to send their children to study abroad, and the poor struggle to access the 10,000 seats at the Indian Institutes of Technology. Sibal’s focus must be to create a policy framework whereby a large number of high quality universities spring up.



The existing framework for running universities in India has been tried for many decades, and has been shown to have failed. In striking contrast, China has been able to get far ahead of India in building universities. If progress has to be made in India, every assumption of the HRD ministry now needs to be questioned. In addition to removing entry barriers against new private or foreign universities, the four new ideas that need to be brought in are: autonomy of universities (including on budget); reduced core funding combined with more competitive research grants; a flexible salary structure; end of government interference in recruitment of staff and students.


The best universities in India, those that we are particularly proud of, are not well rated by international standards. The Times of London’s Higher Education Supplement ranks universities around the world. In 2008, their data showed IIT Delhi at rank 154 and IIT Bombay at rank 174 globally. No other university in India made this top 200 list. By way of comparison, China has universities at ranks 50, 56, 113, 141, 143 and 144. In other words, China has six universities which are superior to IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay.


Last week, the NBER Digest carried an article by Linda Gorman summarising a research paper by Philippe Aghion, Mathias Dewatripont, Caroline M. Hoxby, Andreu Mas-Colell and Andre Sapir which investigates the sources of success in building universities. The paper is immensely useful in thinking about how to build universities in India; it should be on the top of Kapil Sibal’s reading list.


The paper finds that the first element that pulls down the rank of a university is the process of budgetary approval from the government. The average European university that sets its own budget has a rank of 200 while the average European university that needs approval from the government has a rank of 316. In other words, giving a university autonomy to set its own budget on average yields an improvement of 116 ranks. The message for India: in order to obtain high-quality universities, we need to give universities autonomy.


The second important feature is the role of government in funding universities. They find that each percentage point of the university’s budget that comes from core government funds reduces the rank of the university by 3.2 points. The message for India: in order to obtain high-quality universities, we need to give them less money through core funding from the government.


The third issue is inequality in wages. European universities which pay the same wages to all faculty of the same seniority and rank have an average rank of 322. Universities which vary wages for each faculty member and pay different salaries to two people of the same seniority and rank, have an average rank of 213. In other words, flexible HR policies yield an improvement of 109 ranks. The message for India: freeing up HR policies is essential to building high-quality universities.


The fourth issue is the recruitment process for students. Universities which are free to recruit undergraduate students as they like have a rank 156 points higher than those where the government determines the composition of students. The message for India: universities should have full freedom to recruit students as they like, without interference from the government.


The fifth issue is competition. Each percentage point of a university’s budget that comes from a competitive research grants process yields an improvement in its ranking by 6.5. The message for India: the “core funding” money that is taken away from universities should be turned into a competitive process through which a panel of Nobel laureates choose which universities are the most deserving for getting research funding. Defence, space and atomic energy contracts are also ideal sources of meritocratic research funding, because these customers care about results and will not throw money towards a process of political patronage.


Variation across state governments in the United States shows that the best universities come up in states which allow more autonomy, such as independent purchasing systems, no state approval of the university budget, and complete control of personnel hiring and pay.


There is only one university in India which has autonomy on budget setting, recruits its own students, has flexible HR policies, etc., and this is the Indian School of Business. It is perhaps logical that, in 2008, ISB was ranked the 20th best MBA programme by The Financial Times, and in 2009 this rank was improved to 15. None of the IIMs feature anywhere. This is a striking contrast between enormous state expenditures on the IIMs failing to yield measurable results when compared with an alternative which has landed India in the top rankings of the world.


Universities will not be built overnight. But the framework that can lay the foundations for this change can be laid under UPA II over the next 100 days.



The writer is a senior fellow at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, Delhi express@expressindia.com

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Career Planning – An Overwhelming Experience

Posted By Aditi Bhattacharya.

that I dream of being an Ophthalmologist or a Radiologist. A  Scientist , Doctor who owns a restaurant……Rajiv Roy, Class XII

Career planning, the second phase program of Aavishkar, a joint initiative of ABP and Dheya, took place in Kolkata on September 13, 09. The career planning was conducted by career planners, trained and certified by Dheya. Children between age group of 13 and 24 were helped to define their careers and career for next 10 years has been planned for them. Dheya also takes the initiative to track the children for next ten years and guide them as and when required.

The career planning session was an overwhelming experience by itself. It was not only a happy moment for the children but also for the parents who were extremely satisfied with the whole procedure. Before the session started, parents were bit sceptical about the program, but after going through the two hours rigorous session along with their children, they were immensely pleased and delighted.

A few of the parents commented that such sessions were not their in their times and hence, they remained confused through out their academic career and lacked confidence even in their professional career, further, it also made them unhappy about their career choices to some extent. One of the parent said that this kind of program should have been conducted a few months earlier, so that whatever wrong career decisions their kid has taken so far, could have been avoided, nonetheless, it was never too late, as further damage has been avoided, henceforth.

The parents also expressed their gratitude to ABP and Dheya for taking such path breaking steps in the field of education. The children were benefitted multi-fold. There were certain complex cases too where Dheya has taken initiative to help the respective children to build their lives in more than one sitting without any additional charges, helping them first with counselling followed by career guidance and career planning.

In a nutshell, career planning session has helped the children in the following way:

· To choose the correct line of education in congruence to their personality and ability and to their interest to some extent.

· Facilitated them with sound decision whether to invest in particular stream of education/certification.

· Assisted in setting their goals in life.

· Created a focus in their lives.

· Made them confident about their future career decisions.

· Helped them to walk towards their dreams.

· Helped them to have a vision in life.

The careers planning program was a wonderful experience for the Career planners too and they are thankful to have got the opportunity to shape the future of Indian youth.

 

… By Aditi Bhattacharya. Head – Content

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Be Wise in Choosing an Educational Institution...

Source :http://thetoteditor.blogspot.com 

May 10th 2009

By A Concerned Citizen

For more than a month and a half now, Icfai institutes in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Jaipur and other places have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. In fact, on Thursday, many students turned violent and ransacked the Icfai Institute of Science and Technology (IcfaiTech) at Bangalore after learning of its legal status. Today, these students face criminal cases against them and their future is in jeopardy. Students need to be extra careful before joining any institution, especially for pursuing a course leading to their first degree. They should not merely go by advertisements and promotional campaigns. They need to check the legal status of the institution that they are planning to join.

A student should ask four crucial questions before joining an institution of higher learning. These are regarding the status of affiliation and the legal status of the institution awarding the degree, the status of approval by the concerned statutory professional council, the status of accreditation, and the acceptance of the degree by other universities in India and abroad.

Is the Institution awarding the degree, either a valid University or Deemed to be University? If yes, is it operating within its authorized jurisdiction?

In India, valid degrees can be awarded only by a University set up either by an Act of the Parliament, in which case, the University is popularly known as a ‘Central University’ or by an Act of a state legislature, in which case, it will be known as a ‘State University’. Central and state universities come under section 2(f) of the UGC Act. There is also a provision for Central Government to grant 'Deemed to be University' status on institutions of higher learning on the recommendation of the UGC. Such institutes become known as "Deemed Universities" and come under section 3 of the UGC Act. They can also award degrees to their own students, provided their courses have been recognized by the UGC. However, deemed universities cannot affiliate other colleges and institutions.

While Central Universities can have an all-India jurisdiction, subject to the provisions of the Act of the Parliament under which it came to existence, state universities cannot have jurisdiction outside the geographical boundaries of the state. In fact, for several state universities, the jurisdiction might be limited to a few districts within the state. Deemed Universities are unitary universities, which cannot affiliate other institutions. However, as per the 2003 UGC private universities regulations, after five years of their existence, private universities, including deemed universities, under exceptional circumstances, and with the permission of the respective state governments and UGC, can have off-campus centres outside their main campus. BITS Pilani, which now has a legally valid campus each inHyderabad and Goa, is the best example for this.

Keep this in mind! No university is ordinarily allowed to have campuses or study-centres outside its jurisdiction. So always check which university is going to award the degree after the completion of the course. If the university does not have jurisdiction over the geographical area where the institute one is joining is located, then any degree awarded by the university on successful completion of an undergraduate/post graduate program in such an institution would be legally questionable. The only exception to this rule is when it is a legally authorized off-campus centre of an established deemed university like BITS Pilani, in which case the institution is a constituent of that deemed university, and not an affiliate. If your institution claims to be an off-campus centre, and hence, a constituent of a valid university elsewhere, first check if the university in question is more than five years old and whether the campus you are planning to study has been officially notified by the university as an off-campus centre after taking prior permission of the UGC and the concerned state government.

In case, the course you are pursuing is a distance learning course or a flexible learning program as some institutions would call it, irrespective of where you are attending contact classes and writing exams, the course has validity only if its approved by the  Distance Education Council (DEC) and the UGC. In all cases, it is advisable that one check with the UGC if the University under question is in the list maintained by it under section 2(f) of the UGC Act.

Does the course/ programme have the approval of the relevant professional council ? In India, we have various statutory professional councils which have regulatory powers in their respective domains of education. For instance, the DEC that was mentioned above is the concerned professional council when it comes to distance education or Open University system. When it comes to technical education (courses in the field of engineering, computer applications, Management, Pharmacy, Architecture, Hotel Management, etc), the statutory authority is the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). AICTE is the standards maintaining authority and so all institutions of technical education have to maintain the minimum standards prescribed by AICTE. While universities and their constituents legally do not need to take AICTE's prior approval for running technical programmes, even they are expected to maintain the minimum standards prescribed by AICTE, failing which UGC can take action against them. It is mandatory for most deemed universities, colleges and other institutes to take AICTE's permission before running technical courses. Even a seat cannot be increased without AICTE's permission. Exceptions are there: IIMs, IITs etc do not need to take AICTE's permission as they are run directly by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and hence are sister institutions of AICTE. IIT, IIM degrees are, therefore, automatically AICTE approved. Also, long established deemed universities like BITS Pilani, (BITS Pilani became a deemed university in 1964) legally needn't take AICTE’s permission to run technical courses because they were established and were running popular technical courses long before AICTE Act of 1987 was passed.

Analogous to the role performed by AICTE in technical education, is the role performed by Medical Council of India (MCI) in medical education; Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) in agricultural education and research; National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) in teacher education (B.Ed, M.Ed etc);Dentists Council of India, Pharmacy Council of India, Indian Nursing Council and Bar Council of India in the fields of dental education, pharmacy education (up to graduate level), nursing education and legal education respectively;

Does the institution have valid accreditation? If it is an institution approved by the UGC and if its credentials are good, the institution is likely to go for National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) accreditation. NAAC accreditation, therefore, is an indication that the institution has send out at least two batches of students already and that it has nothing to hide. In addition, if the NAAC has awarded a high grade (A, A+ etc) then that is official recognition of the quality of education that such an institute provides. For instance, the University of Hyderabad has been awarded the highest possible rating given by NAAC. If it is a technical institution approved by the AICTE, then the accrediting body is the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). NBA after its examinations merely gives an 'accredited' or 'not-accredited' status to institutions. NBA accreditation is again an official recognition that the institution meets or exceeds the stipulated minimum standards for technical education prescribed by AICTE.

Is the institution awarding the degree a member of the Association of Indian Universities? It is not a legal requirement that all universities and deemed universities in India should be members of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU). However, all traditional universities and deemed universities in India are members of the AIU. Several universities, when considering students for higher education, insist that their previous degree should be from a university, which is a member of the AIU. Even some of the reputed non-Indian South Asian universities are associate members of the AIU. Since AIU is authorized by the member universities to determine the equivalence of various degrees across different universities in India, it is always good (from a mobility perspective) to earn your degrees from universities/deemed universities which are members of AIU.

It is important that students know the regulatory environment in the field of higher education in India. Knowing the legal requirements and taking reasonable care in these matters can help the youth of this country avoid losing money and precious years to well marketed, money-oriented educational business empires. It is certainly better to be careful than to be sorry!

TOT Editor's note: It is a timely message. The Opportunistic Times would like to place on record our thanks to the concerned citizen who wrote this and has shared it for publication. Also, please note that the usual disclaimers apply. The author has taken reasonable care while collecting and presenting the information contained above. This is posted here for information purposes alone, in the spirit of a public service message. Any erroneous reporting of factual details, if pointed out with evidence of the correctness of the claim, will be rectified with due acknowledgment within reasonable time. Needless to say, any act of accessing and reading information here does not create any relationship, including a solicitor-client relationship, and the author and the publisher takes no responsibility of actions taken on the basis of information provided in this blog.

Posted by JMG at 12:05 AM

Labels: AICTE, DEC, Deemed University, Icfai, IcfaiTech, MHRD, UGC, University

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I Just Quit My Job... Am I Crazy?

I Just Quit My Job... Am I Crazy?

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A TIME BOMB waiting to burst :Education VS Employability

While reading TOI, I am really concerned with the future of our education system. Let me explain ..In a place called Solan a PhD, an MBA and many one have registered under NREGA. What's NREGA?? Its National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Every unemployed citizen in the rural area in entitled to employment under this act. The only difference is the work in more on the manual side like digging roads, pits etc..

This raises some tough questions. With the HR managers and the India Inc always shouting on top of their voice that – there are NO GOOD PEOPLE…where have all the good people gone??

While the education system is churning out PhDs, MBA, Masters, and Bachelors like a mass manufacturing products, the utility and the quality of those products are in question?? … Mr Sibal, Mr. education minister are you listening?? Tough Mr. Sibal has taken some great steps in reforming education, he needs to look at more of OUTPUT or RESULT oriented education policy.

With new education bill passing in the parliament, its even funny, the government has legitimised the private education system. Now these people are free to charge what ever they what without being accountable for the quality of education. Today, where the students and the parents invest on an average Rs 8 Lakhs for an engineering degree, Rs. 25 Lakhs for a medical degree and Rs.7 Lakhs for an MBA. The whole of investment is done for supposedly the better future of their kid, and when the kind lands into a job that pays miniscule salary and offers him a menial job, the onus of kids success is dumped solely on the student.

While making sales calls I happened to be meeting the President and the Owner of a large education society which has approx 35000 students studying in it. I was made to wait for 2 hours and then an arrogant chief of the institution arrived, he called us inside. It was admission time, this man from any angle did not look like an educationist but called himself Prof. He said he is very busy, so we waited. He had people walking in and out of his room. TO everyone he was quoting a figure.. if you need admissions, 3 lakhs for this campus, 2 lakhs for another and 1.5 lakhs for a distant campus… ALL IN CASH, no receipt , plus fees..??

People with no background in education are owners of large education institutions. Obviously there is no education imparted in colleges.. hence the business of coaching classes is booming. I fail to differentiate between the college and coaching class of tutorial classes.. both have the same number of student yet people go for it.

Ultimately… only 23% MBA are employable, 15% of grads are employable… majority take menial jobs.. and India as a nation is moving towards a HIGHLY QUALIFIED UNEMPLOYABLE nation with LOW PRODUCTIVITY???

Apart from their brilliant academic track records Ankit Chaudhary, Rajinder Rana, Anchal, Devi, Anjali and a bunch of others like them in Nauni, a picturesque town nestled in Solan, 45 km from Shimla, have one more thing in common. They are all workers labouring under NREGA.

“Some work is better than no work,’’ said Ankit, a PhD from the prestigious Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Solan. “And work is worship. Haven’t we been taught that? Moreover, I think all of us have another agenda in that NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) funds should keep flowing into our village and should never ever be returned unutilized.’’

Its time we wake up and do something about it…. its a TIME BOMB waiting to burst

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Employability in India: Dheya gives a solution

1. An operational definition of being employed means having a job, and employable means having the qualities to maintain employment, progress in work place and able to be employed in different work place. From the point of view of the individual, employability skills are the career capital or the learned assets that a person needs to get a job and acquire job specific skills, while on the job. From the point of view of the employers, employability skills are the generic skills, attitudes and behaviours that they require in all their employees. Hence, the employability skills in the point of view of the employer define the requirements to satisfy screening process in the job market.

2. Considering the measures that allow us to check whether a person is employable, there is a general agreement that three types of qualities are important while assessing the employability performance. These are:

a. Key technical and academic skills specific to the job, to great extent academic curriculum prepares the students to gain them. These skills include reading, language/linguistics, and numerical ability, written expression and comprehension and analysis.

b. Process skills: Unlike the key technical and academic skills, process skills need to be demonstrated on the work. These are problem solving ability, creativity, decision making, technological readiness (IT literacy), business understanding, skills that make one employable etc.

c. Life Skills: In addition to the ability to carry out the task, an employer looks for the qualities of self-confidence, communication skills, self-control, self- esteem, social skills, basic values, adaptability, flexibility, willingness to learn, emotional intelligence, stress tolerance, punctuality, efficiency and effectiveness. These qualities are very much embedded with the personality type of the individual.

3. There are either no strategies/actions or limited strategies/actions to address the issue of LIFE SKILLS which has lead to higher rate un-employability. Unfortunately life skill services remain poorly developed and accessible only to very limited numbers of young people in India. Moreover life skill development initiatives have been focused towards the existing work force, those who have left the education system than upon the student population in the education system or the drop-outs.

Dheya give a solution ....

Our objective is to get the un-employable educated rural / tribal youth improve their employability. The lack of self-confidence, self esteem and communicative skills along with certain process skills have been the major drawbacks leading to un-employability. We work with rural / tribal youth and build process skills and life skills to enhance their employability.

The whole process is in a form of a psychological assessment of individual abilities, and behavioural pattern using validated tools to define a capability profile of the individual and assigning a program that would help the individual become employable.

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